{"id":546,"date":"2008-07-03T16:28:59","date_gmt":"2008-07-03T20:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=546"},"modified":"2008-07-03T16:28:59","modified_gmt":"2008-07-03T20:28:59","slug":"ghost-scholars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=546","title":{"rendered":"Ghost Scholars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newsday’s Editorial
\nThursday, July 3 2008<\/i><\/p>\n

Marlene Mc DonaldWhere do the neophyte Ministers of the PNM regime get the idea that taxpayers\u2019 money is not taxpayers\u2019 business? Was this what they were taught at their retreat last year, which was also at taxpayers\u2019 expense, to learn about their responsibilities? Or are they merely falling into the easy contempt with which politicians too often treat the citizens of this country?
\n
\nIn the Senate on Tuesday, the Minister of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs, Marlene McDonald, was asked to name the persons who had received financial assistance by way of scholarships, or awards to the tune of $45 million over the past six years. Ms McDonald\u2019s absurd response was that the names were \u201cpersonal information\u201d and so she would not disclose them. This reply echoes an equally unacceptable reply some weeks ago from Attorney General Bridgid Annisette-George who, when asked in the Parliament to say how much money had been paid to Douglas Mendes SC by the Government, claimed that the Constitution prevented such disclosure \u2013 an assertion widely derided by persons clearly more competent in legal interpretation. <\/p>\n

To Ms McDonald\u2019s statement, Opposition Senator M F Rahman\u2019s response was to ask what was the difference between the Government scholarships and the Ministry\u2019s award programme. He is perfectly correct: The names of national scholarship winners are published in the newspapers because they are funded by taxpayers. The money Ms McDonald\u2019s Ministry is using to fund its awards is also public money. And where public expenditure is involved the public has a right to know who the beneficiaries are. The Minister\u2019s reluctance will surely now raise suspicions in the minds of citizens about these \u201cghost scholars\u201d. Do they even exist? And, if they do, what were the criteria by which they were given taxpayers\u2019 money to pursue their studies? Was it merit or was it political connections? The Ministry has disbursed $45 million in the past six years. How many applicants got this money? If it were 20 persons, that means that each of them got a cool $375,000. If it were one hundred persons, each got $75,000. What are these sums being used for? <\/p>\n

All of these questions may be entirely unfair to the persons who have gotten these Ministry awards. But Ms McDonald, by her secrecy, has opened the door to such speculation. It must be noted, too, that the PNM\u2019s record in such matters is rather spotty. In one of the few official records of special scholarships given by the PNM administration, for example, the statistics suggest racial bias in the persons chosen, in marked contrast to the national scholarships, which are based on merit. <\/p>\n

This pattern strongly suggests that the criteria being applied in the award of \u201cspecial\u201d scholarships may not be based on academic excellence. Yet, it could reasonably be argued that not all scholarship awards should necessarily be based on that one criterion. Other factors, such as a disadvantaged socio-economic or psychological background or physical disability, could also determine who gets financial assistance. But, if non-standard criteria are being applied, then the Government should let the public know this. These scholarships or awards or whatever they are, since they involve public monies, must be as transparent as possible. It is worrying to note that such transparency is becoming increasingly alien to the present administration and its servants. <\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.newsday.co.tt\/editorial\/0,81830.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Newsday’s Editorial Thursday, July 3 2008 Where do the neophyte Ministers of the PNM regime get the idea that taxpayers\u2019 money is not taxpayers\u2019 business? Was this what they were taught at their retreat last year, which was also at taxpayers\u2019 expense, to learn about their responsibilities? Or are they merely falling into the easy … Continue reading Ghost Scholars<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-tt","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}